does a bank have some type of immunity to disclose private information of their clients? this happened in the state of washington. it began in september of 2009. 2 ½ years ago my sister who had not been around at all for 6 years came back into my mother and my lives. She filed a guardianship action, but before that happened she had convinced some bank employees that their was something amiss. the bank employees lied to me, assisted my sister who was not a bank client. it was a very biased case. it has cost us a great deal of money, time and embarassment. through the discovery process, i obtained emails that were written by my sister. she writes about how the bank employee told her that she” had legal action against her mother and brother” both bank clients. another employee told my mom’s friend that my mom needed to get a new attorney, new will and power of attorney. this same employee had notarized the same documents 18 months before this action. she knew my mom was competent then. i have kept this short because it is complex but i just want to know if the bank employees could go off what my sister said, and then invade our privacy, defame us and put us through a long expensive ordeal without any liability? please know that the bank employees did not file anything, it was my sister doing it. but before they guardianship action was started they promoted and assisted her.
No, the banks are bound by their privacy policies to their clients. Thus, they cannot release account information to anyone other than the account holder and if they do they can be sued for breach of contract (the privacy policy) for releasing any account money. If your sister did not have an actual guardianship or PoA document to show the bank, then they had no business releasing the information to her and you may sue them for doing so.
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thank you paul.
i have been reading about the banks having an obligation to report if they suspect financial fraud or undue influence to elderly people.
i don't know if my sister or the bank employees reported to aps, but someone did and they came to my moms home and found nothing wrong and wrote there was no finding.this reporting to aps was done later too.
are there punitive damages awarded in breach of contract settlements?
what about invasion of privacy, false light, etc.. aren't there a whole bunch of other things to sue for as well as breach?
If your sister claimed there was financial abuse, then the bank had to make the report. There are not punitive damages for breach of contract, but if you can prove the false reporting (won't be false light as they did not really publish the information with malice as required) of a complaint then you could seek punitive damages. The problem is that if the bank reported based on your sister's claims, then it is your SISTER you could sue for false reports, defamation, libel and even infliction of emotional distress for putting you through all of that. The bank can be liable for breach of their privacy policy if they released account information to your sister, but not for making a report to APS based on claims of abuse made by your sister, that liability is on your sister.
so if there is not punitive damages, i can only recover what i can prove i lost during this 3 years debacle?
a couple of issues i want to point out are:
I first need to get a copy of the report to see who filed? The bank or my sister?how can i get a copy?
I can prove the bank and my sister both reported falsely if i have to quit easily.
The bank employee stated that my mom's home was worth 881,000 and that the loan she refied her home was a high ltv, loan to value.
It was 220,000 which is a low ltv. I got one of the bank's loan officers to put on his letter head that was not true and that it was a low loan to value.
she also said that my mom's line of credit was nearly maxed out. It was actually a heloc, home equity line of credit. at that time only qualified for 100,000 line of credit. we used 80,000 for building out investment properties, which we have done for 17 years successfully. my mom could qualify for much more shortly after that because i nearly quadriplied her income.
my sister would parrot what the bank employee said. in fact, my sister brought this whole thing at the beginning without any real documentatin, she would put it was "upon suspection and belief."
even after the accounting was provided, my mom was up 251,000.
one time during the proceedings i wired 55,000 from my mom's personal account to her account at a brokerage house she had. at the bank it was not getting any interest and with the brokerage house she was getting about 8%.
everything i do for my mom makes money. everything my sister does costs us all.
if i approach this right i feel the bank will want to keep me quiet. they are the 17th best bank in the country whatever that means. they pride themselves on having this great reputation.
The size of the town is perfect for picketing the bank. If I stood out side the bank with a sign that shows my website with all the documents how they violated our privacy rights, promoted and assisted a lawsuit against their own clients, I think they would very quickly want to settle with my mother and I.
In the end, the trust dept said that my mom's estate was not large enough for them, and therefore they did not want to adminstor her trust. so, that makes the trust officer that was feeding my sister look pretty stupid, as she was always making sales calls to the gal, and attorneys trying to get the account. most likely she was probably doing things for my sister too.
last question, do i want to sue them and get depostions and also get emails, phone records or would it be ok to have my attorny talk with the ceo and try to reach a settlement without a lawsuit?
1) To get a copy of the reports, you would need to have a lawsuit filed and you would need a subpoena for them.2) You do not want to picket the bank if they were reacting to your sister's information, as this is just going to lead to you being sued and restraining orders being issued against you. Picketing or public posting on websites rarely if ever resolves these cases and just leads to the company suing you.3) You do not know what your sister provided the bank to get them to release the information, this has to be determined. If she did not present anything, then the bank is liable for breach of their privacy policy and damages that they caused.3) Using an attorney to negotiate this many times will get a settlement from the bank because they do not want the publicity of a lawsuit over a privacy violation, it is very bad for their business.